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Niners believe Erickson will be better second time around

February 11, 2003

All along, the football world figured the 49ers would make their next head coach a respected NFL coordinator. Truth be told, they came extremely close to doing just that -- until a long series of weekend meetings with Oregon State head coach Dennis Erickson changed the minds of GM Terry Donahue, who ran the search, and owner's representative John York, who joined the weekend meetings and approved the hiring of the well-traveled Erickson late Monday night.
A source close to the talks said this afternoon that the 55-year-old Erickson -- a quasi-failure in his four-year run with the Seahawks in the late '90s, going 31-33 -- got the nod over New York Jets defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell because of one trait and one trait only: experience.
The 49ers are expected to announce the hiring of Erickson late Wednesday. He was back in Oregon on Tuesday to inform his players he was leaving the program to succeed the fired Steve Mariucci.
The pill was a bitter one to swallow for Cottrell, who was informed by Donahue just before 1 p.m. EST Tuesday that the 49ers had chosen Erickson. As a black candidate, he carried the hopes of a league trying to improve on its dismal resumé of minority coaches; three of the 32 NFL team are coached by black men, despite the fact that approximately 70 percent of the league's players are black.
Cottrell has built strong defenses as coordinator in Buffalo and with the Jets, but he's rapidly becoming the Susan Lucci of NFL coordinators. Like the soap actress long spurned for major awards, Cottrell has had a recent string of disappointing finishes in head-coaching derbies. This was the seventh time he'd interviewed for a head coach's job, none of which he's gotten.
There is no question, the source close to the talks said, that Erickson's four head-coaching jobs in the past 20 years -- at Washington State, the University of Miami, the Seahawks and Oregon State -- gave him the edge over career assistant Cottrell.
This is how the scenario played out:
Donahue, running his first coaching search deliberately, failed to land the man the 49ers apparently had as their first choice, Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin. The 49ers talked to Kiffin, but Kiffin's agent, Jimmy Sexton, told SI.com that by the time they made him a market offer of approximately $2.4 million per year, the defensive whiz had already made a verbal agreement to take a contract extension from the Bucs. That extension will pay Kiffin about $1.6 million per year.
"But the 49ers dragged their feet on Monte," a source close to those talks said. "If they'd met with him right after the Super Bowl and given him their final offer, he'd have taken the job."
And so a week after the Super Bowl, Donahue whittled his list of pro candidates to three: Cottrell, 49ers defensive coordinator Jim Mora Jr., and Chicago defensive coordinator Greg Blache. All three were brought in for second interviews last week.
At the same time, Donahue was contacting the men on the list he'd formed of college candidates. Politically, he couldn't interview any of those candidates until after national letter-of-intent signing day last Wednesday. It is believed his list contained six names: Oregon head coach Mike Belotti, Erickson, Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops, Washington head coach Rick Neuheisel and two other unidentified coaches. One of the coaches it is believed the 49ers contacted was Ohio State's Jim Tressel, who won the national championship this year in his second season with the Buckeyes.
There is a long history between Tressel and York, whose offices with the DeBartolo Corporation are in Youngstown, Ohio, where Tressel was the head coach at Youngstown State for 12 years. All of those coaches either were not interested or were dinged by the 49ers for one reason or another -- except for Erickson.
By Friday, York and Donahue decided Cottrell would be their man pending their time spent with Erickson during the weekend. They met at length Saturday, believed to be at the 49ers' training site in Santa Clara. Each 49er boss got individual time with Erickson, and each came away thinking he'd learned from his Seattle experience and was a hungry coach, though a veteran one.
"Not only had Dennis won big at Miami and Oregon State," the source said, "but [York and Donahue] both felt he really had a desire to prove he could coach in the NFL. Then what it came down to was pretty simple. Dennis had won as a head coach. No knock on Ted, but you always wonder: Can he make the jump? [York and Donahue] figured this was a team ready to win now."
Erickson, to the 49ers, was a safer pick. In 16 years as a college head coach, he was 136-52-1, including a 63-9 six-year run while at Miami. While with the Hurricanes, he became the second college head coach ever to win a national title in his first year at a school.
So Cottrell goes back to the Jets, and the NFL, as it turns out, batted .200 this postseason in black coach hires. Of the five vacancies, the only one filled by a minority coach was in Cincinnati, where Marvin Lewis took over in January.
The fact that Cottrell did not get the 49ers job poses a Catch-22 dilemma for him and those who are politicking for more black coaches in the NFL. Erickson got this job because he was experienced. Cottrell was not. But how does Cottrell get the experience if no team will give him the chance?
There is no question that the 49ers would have been pleased to announce Cottrell on Wednesday instead of Erickson, had Erickson said no. At one point during the team's deliberations, consultant Bill Walsh told York: "He reminds me of a football-Dusty Baker." That's the sort of charismatic impact Cottrell had on the 49ers.
Now Erickson returns to try to make amends for the only mediocre coaching job on his resumé. Some say he was a victim of circumstances in Seattle, caught between a franchise threatening to move to Los Angeles, which happened in his first year in Seattle, and one being sold to billionaire Paul Allen.
In fairness to Erickson, the team was in flux for much of his four years, and the team was robbed of a playoff berth his last year because of an official's poor call in the season finale against the Jets. That loss caused Erickson and his staff to get fired and Mike Holmgren to get hired from Green Bay. Holmgren is 31-33 in the regular season as the Seahawks head coach even since ... the same as Erickson was in his four years.
Now, with a ready-made playoff team with key members of a solid offensive staff (offensive coordinator Greg Knapp and quarterbacks coach Ted Tollner) intact, Erickson has a second chance to prove he's not just a good college coach.

Tell us what you think on the new 49ers Clubhouse message board.

All along, the football world figured the 49ers would make their next head coach a respected NFL coordinator. Truth be told, they came extremely close to doing just that -- until a long series of weekend meetings with Oregon State head coach Dennis Erickson changed the minds of GM Terry Donahue, who ran the search, and owner's representative John York, who joined the weekend meetings and approved the hiring of the well-traveled Erickson late Monday night.

A source close to the talks said this afternoon that the 55-year-old Erickson -- a quasi-failure in his four-year run with the Seahawks in the late '90s, going 31-33 -- got the nod over New York Jets defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell because of one trait and one trait only: experience.

The 49ers are expected to announce the hiring of Erickson late Wednesday. He was back in Oregon on Tuesday to inform his players he was leaving the program to succeed the fired Steve Mariucci.

The pill was a bitter one to swallow for Cottrell, who was informed by Donahue just before 1 p.m. EST Tuesday that the 49ers had chosen Erickson. As a black candidate, he carried the hopes of a league trying to improve on its dismal resumé of minority coaches; three of the 32 NFL team are coached by black men, despite the fact that approximately 70 percent of the league's players are black.

Cottrell has built strong defenses as coordinator in Buffalo and with the Jets, but he's rapidly becoming the Susan Lucci of NFL coordinators. Like the soap actress long spurned for major awards, Cottrell has had a recent string of disappointing finishes in head-coaching derbies. This was the seventh time he'd interviewed for a head coach's job, none of which he's gotten.

There is no question, the source close to the talks said, that Erickson's four head-coaching jobs in the past 20 years -- at Washington State, the University of Miami, the Seahawks and Oregon State -- gave him the edge over career assistant Cottrell.

This is how the scenario played out:

Donahue, running his first coaching search deliberately, failed to land the man the 49ers apparently had as their first choice, Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin. The 49ers talked to Kiffin, but Kiffin's agent, Jimmy Sexton, told SI.com that by the time they made him a market offer of approximately $2.4 million per year, the defensive whiz had already made a verbal agreement to take a contract extension from the Bucs. That extension will pay Kiffin about $1.6 million per year.

"But the 49ers dragged their feet on Monte," a source close to those talks said. "If they'd met with him right after the Super Bowl and given him their final offer, he'd have taken the job."

And so a week after the Super Bowl, Donahue whittled his list of pro candidates to three: Cottrell, 49ers defensive coordinator Jim Mora Jr., and Chicago defensive coordinator Greg Blache. All three were brought in for second interviews last week.

At the same time, Donahue was contacting the men on the list he'd formed of college candidates. Politically, he couldn't interview any of those candidates until after national letter-of-intent signing day last Wednesday. It is believed his list contained six names: Oregon head coach Mike Belotti, Erickson, Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops, Washington head coach Rick Neuheisel and two other unidentified coaches. One of the coaches it is believed the 49ers contacted was Ohio State's Jim Tressel, who won the national championship this year in his second season with the Buckeyes.

There is a long history between Tressel and York, whose offices with the DeBartolo Corporation are in Youngstown, Ohio, where Tressel was the head coach at Youngstown State for 12 years. All of those coaches either were not interested or were dinged by the 49ers for one reason or another -- except for Erickson.

By Friday, York and Donahue decided Cottrell would be their man pending their time spent with Erickson during the weekend. They met at length Saturday, believed to be at the 49ers' training site in Santa Clara. Each 49er boss got individual time with Erickson, and each came away thinking he'd learned from his Seattle experience and was a hungry coach, though a veteran one.

"Not only had Dennis won big at Miami and Oregon State," the source said, "but [York and Donahue] both felt he really had a desire to prove he could coach in the NFL. Then what it came down to was pretty simple. Dennis had won as a head coach. No knock on Ted, but you always wonder: Can he make the jump? [York and Donahue] figured this was a team ready to win now."

Erickson, to the 49ers, was a safer pick. In 16 years as a college head coach, he was 136-52-1, including a 63-9 six-year run while at Miami. While with the Hurricanes, he became the second college head coach ever to win a national title in his first year at a school.

So Cottrell goes back to the Jets, and the NFL, as it turns out, batted .200 this postseason in black coach hires. Of the five vacancies, the only one filled by a minority coach was in Cincinnati, where Marvin Lewis took over in January.

The fact that Cottrell did not get the 49ers job poses a Catch-22 dilemma for him and those who are politicking for more black coaches in the NFL. Erickson got this job because he was experienced. Cottrell was not. But how does Cottrell get the experience if no team will give him the chance?

There is no question that the 49ers would have been pleased to announce Cottrell on Wednesday instead of Erickson, had Erickson said no. At one point during the team's deliberations, consultant Bill Walsh told York: "He reminds me of a football-Dusty Baker." That's the sort of charismatic impact Cottrell had on the 49ers.

Now Erickson returns to try to make amends for the only mediocre coaching job on his resumé. Some say he was a victim of circumstances in Seattle, caught between a franchise threatening to move to Los Angeles, which happened in his first year in Seattle, and one being sold to billionaire Paul Allen.

In fairness to Erickson, the team was in flux for much of his four years, and the team was robbed of a playoff berth his last year because of an official's poor call in the season finale against the Jets. That loss caused Erickson and his staff to get fired and Mike Holmgren to get hired from Green Bay. Holmgren is 31-33 in the regular season as the Seahawks head coach even since ... the same as Erickson was in his four years.

Now, with a ready-made playoff team with key members of a solid offensive staff (offensive coordinator Greg Knapp and quarterbacks coach Ted Tollner) intact, Erickson has a second chance to prove he's not just a good college coach.

Tell us what you think on the new 49ers Clubhouse message board.